A Quick-Hits Guide to Kraków

Five unique and occasionally poetic things that you can do around Poland's cultural nerve center—and nowhere else.

Updated Aug. 8, 2013 7:02 p.m. ET

POLAND'S FORMER CAPITAL and perennial artistic and intellectual heart has inspired figures as diverse as Nicolaus Copernicus, Pope John Paul II and Nobel Prize-winning poet Wisława Szymborska. Home to the ancient Jagiellonian University, Wawel Castle and Europe's largest medieval square, Kraków celebrates some 120 cultural festivals a year, including the Sacrum Profanum contemporary music festival, coming up in September. Here's a handful of unmissable things in and around this historic town.